safe

safe, secure can both mean free from danger or apprehension of danger.

Safe may imply that one has passed through dangers or has run some risk (as of injury or of being lost) without incurring harm or damage

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arrived home safe and sound after their long journey

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or it can apply to persons or possessions whose situation or position involves neither risk nor exposure to destruction or loss

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let the great world rage! We will stay here safe in the quiet dwellings— Shelley

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build shelters where the people might go to be safe from falling bombs

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he felt that his money was safe when it was in a bank

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sat in a niche of the tower where her somewhat faded beauty was safe from the sun— Bemelmans

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or to things (as highways, bridges, or vehicles, or as policies, actions, or courses) which are so constructed or designed that they expose one to few or no risks

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a safe harbor

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a safe fire escape

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a safe investment

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'tis never safe to despise an enemy— Defoe

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or to a cautious procedure which keeps one out of danger or free from the risk of making an error or blunder

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it is safer to generalize about institutions than individuals— Levin

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Secure in a few idiomatic phrases implies freedom from anxiety or apprehension of danger

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most people like to feel secure

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In more general use secure tends to stress freedom from anxiety not as merely a subjective state but as a frame of mind induced by grounds that are or appear to be good and sufficient. Sometimes the grounds are intellectual and imply sufficient evidence to establish the certainty of something that has been doubted

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send the author off to other publishers, secure in his belief that only an ugly moneyed attitude separates his work from the public— Frugé

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Sometimes the grounds are material, such as the existence of sufficient money, the possession or definite expectation of property, or a definite means of livelihood which enables one to live or make a venture without fear, or the provision of safe-guards or protective devices which make a thing safe to use or follow

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the offer of a partnership by making his future secure also made his marriage possible

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now that the foundations were in good repair they regarded the bridge as secure

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a provident, rather thoughtful people, who made their livelihood secure by raising crops and fowl— Cather

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an independent, stubborn man who knew what he wanted, a man who was firmly rooted, established, secure against calamity and want— Wolfe

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Often the term suggests not only a freedom from fear of danger but a position, condition, or situation free from all hazards

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has made a secure place for himself in the history of English poetry

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university graduates who had been unable to find suitable jobs or any secure place in normal society— Shirer

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Analogous words: protected, guarded, shielded (see DEFEND): *reliable, dependable, tried

Antonyms: dangerous

Contrasted words: precarious, hazardous, risky, perilous (see DANGEROUS)